Welcome to the last edition of our digital magazine for 2023! This year has been nothing short of transformative. We welcomed Jan Paul Medema as our new Head of Institute & Scientific Director, and more recently, we announced that starting January 2024, we will welcome 10 new junior Oncode Investigators!

Welcome to the Special Edition of Oncode’s Digital Magazine! We created this issue to celebrate the recently announced continuation of our institute. The result is a spotlight set on Oncode’s growth and achievements over its first five years of existence, while also looking towards the future.

In this issue’s Dialogue section, Oncode Investigator Jos Jonkers (NKI) and Cancer Research Horizons’ Neil Jones discuss our new partnership. They focus on the complementarity between our two organizations - in general, but also through our first joint project in the field of DNA damage repair, a project now moving towards a proof-of-concept point. Further, the Portrait section tells all about Oncode Investigator Linde Meyaard’s (UMCU) passion for science, while this issue’s Story looks into Oncode Investigator Hugo Snippert’s (UMCU) lab and his work on how benign tumours transform into malignant cancers.

In the Dialogue section clinician Miriam Koopman and Oncode Investigator Hans Clevers discuss a currently hot topic: the challenges and the opportunities of drug development in the Netherlands. Get to know Oncode Investigator Jop Kind (Hubrecht Institute) in the Portrait section and read the Story for insights into Laura Heitman’s (LACDR) unique research into drug-receptor interactions. And don’t miss an update on everything that kept us busy in these last months – from a new lung vaccine going into clinical trial to the way we marked World Cancer Day this year, and much more – in the Eureka section.

In this issue’s Dialogue section, Henk Verheul (Clinical Oncologist at Radboudumc and Chair of the Oncode Clinical Advisory Board) and Sipko Mulder (Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport) discuss Affordable Healthcare. We also dive into Titia Sixma’s work at the NKI in the Story section, and get to know Lude Franke (UMCG) better through this issue’s Portrait interview. Read the magazine for this, all the latest updates (in the #Eureka section) and much more.

This issue, learn all about Oncode Investigator Peter ten Dijke’s work on the TGF-β growth factor, with the ultimate goal of developing novel cancer treatments (Story section). Read further for insights into the challenges of turning a drug target or a biomarker into a clinical product, in the Dialogue between Oncode Investigator Rebekka Schneider and Jan Groen, CEO of Intravacc and member of the Investment Advisory Committee of the Oncode Bridge Fund. And don’t forget the #Eureka section for the latest updates, and the Portrait section is your chance to get to know Oncode Investigator Anne Rios better.

This issue brings some good news (no spoiler alert, you must read our Editorial), and we hope will also tap into your interests, curiosity and need of reflection. In our Dialogue section Leila Akkari and Jeanine Roodhart look back at the past months, reflecting on their experiences and the challenges they faced. Oncode Investigator Jarno Drost didn’t always dream of becoming a researcher - after the Dialogue, read further for a chance to get to know him a bit better. This issue we would also like to make an introduction: Alain Kummer, our new managing director as of last September talks about his new role and about his ambitions in the magazine’s new column section. Finally, take a deep dive into the work of Oncode Investigator Sylvie Noordermeer, who imitates cancer cells in the lab by inflicting DNA damage, finding new targets for more effective treatments.

In the past quarter we said goodbye to one of the driving forces behind the idea of Oncode: Angus Livingstone. Upon his well-deserved retirement, his position as Valorization Director was taken over by Chris De Jonghe. In this magazine, Angus and Chris reflect on and look ahead to what Oncode has to offer. In months where digital is the new standard, we took a deep-dive into one of our labs where the work on outsmarting cancer is mostly through digital research. How can computational biology further cancer research? Lodewyk Wessels and his team give you a sneak peek into building the ultimate computational model to understand drug responses in cancer treatment. In a more personal interview, we get to know Oncode Investigator Puck Knipscheer. With agricultural roots and a passion for biology, physics and chemistry, her academic career took her from Wageningen, to Boston and back to Utrecht.

In this edition, Rudy Dekeyser – partner at LSP and one of the key driving forces behind the foundation of Oncode Institute - and Oncode Investigator Jeroen de Ridder reflect on Oncode’s proactive valorization approach. Next, you get to know Oncode Investigator Carl Figdor (Radboudumc) who explains his love for science and is developing cutting edge technologies in cell therapy. Our cutting edge science is also featured in this edition. We visited the lab of Oncode Investigator Marvin Tanenbaum who takes us on a journey about the regulation of gene expression.

In this edition, Jannie Borst, Oncode Investigator at the Leiden University Medical Center, and Andrea van Elsas, Chief Scientific Officer at Aduro Biotech, reflect on the lessons we can learn from the development of a successful immunotherapeutic. On a more personal note, we get to know Oncode Investigator Ruben van Boxtel. What’s his motivation to work at the Princess Máxima Center and how does he deal with being around very ill children everyday as a father of five? For a deep dive in the science of Oncode, we visited the lab of Oncode Investigator Rebekka Schneider to discuss the impact of her research into early stages of leukaemia.

The drug development pipeline is discussed in a dialogue between patient advocate Stefan Gijssels and Oncode Investigator Emile Voest. Monika Wolkers, one of our newly appointed Oncode Investigators, shares her personal motivation to work in oncology and we immersed ourselves in the world of immunotherapy by visiting the lab of Ton Schumacher.